This is a major contribution to the study of medieval Wales by a group of outstanding British historians, writing in honour of one of Wales's most distinguished scholars and the biographer of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. The essays reflect exciting trends in the study of both Wales and the Middle Ages, including church building, chronicle writing, the comparative history of the law, valuable reassessments of town life and the implications of the Edwardian conquest of Wales.

This is a study of the landed gentry of north Wales from the Edwardian conquest in the thirteenth century to the incorporation of Wales in the Tudor state in the sixteenth. The limitation of the discussion to north Wales is deliberate; there has often been a tendency to treat Wales as a single region, but it is important to stress that, like any other country, it is itself made up of regions and that a uniformity based on generalisation cannot be imposed. This book describes the development of the gentry in one part of Wales from an earlier social structure and an earlier pattern of land tenure, and how the gentry came to rule their localities. There have been a number of studies of the medieval English gentry, usually based on individual counties, but the emphasis in a Welsh study is not necessarily the same as that in one relating to England. The rich corpus of medieval poetry addressed to the leaders of native society and the wealth of genealogical material and its potential are two examples of this difference in emphasis.

The studies in this volume range across literature, archaeology, law and theology and show IrelandÃ?Â?Ã?Â?and Wales as societies in close contact. --- Contents: Proinsias Mac Cana, Ireland and Wales in the Middle Ages: an overview; Iwan Wmffre (UU), Post-Roman Irish settlements in Wales; Catherine Swift (Mary I, Limerick), Welsh ogamsÃ?Â?Ã?Â?from an Irish perspective; Susan Youngs (Reading U), Britain, Wales and Ireland: holding things together; Alex Woolf (St Andrews), The expulsion of the Irish from Dyfed; Karen Jankulak (U Wales, Lampeter), British saints, Irish saints, and the Irish in Wales; ColmÃ?Â?Ã?¡n Etchingham (NUIM), Viking-age Gwynedd and Ireland; John Carey (UCC), Bran son of Febal and BrÃ?Â?Ã?Â[n son of Llyr; Morfydd Owen (Aberystwyth), Medieval Irish and Welsh law; Jonathan Wooding (U Wales, Ã?Â?Ã?Â?Lampeter), Coastal chapels in Ireland and Wales; Robert Babcock (Hastings College, Nebraska), Rhys Ap Gruffudd and RuaidrÃ?Â?Ã?Â- Ua Conchobair compared; Madeleine Gray (U Wales, Newport) & Salvador Ryan (NUIM), Mother of Mercy.

Concise histories of the religious houses of post-Conquest Wales with a full introduction to the history of medieval monasticism in Wales, written by two established monastic historians Up-to-date assessment of the standing remains of Wales’s medieval abbeys and priories Practical user-friendly visitor guide to the religious houses of medieval Wales Visually attractive format, highly illustrated with colour and b/w photographs, drawings, maps and ground plans Extensive bibliography and suggestions for further reading

The conquest of Wales by the medieval English throne produced a fiercely contested territory, both militarily and culturally. Wales was left fissured by frontiers of language, jurisdiction and loyalty - a reluctant meeting place of literary traditions and political cultures. But the profound consequences of this first colonial adventure on the development of medieval English culture have been disregarded. In setting English figurations of Wales against the contrasted representations of the Welsh language tradition, this volume seeks to reverse this neglect, insisting on the crucial importance of the English experience in Wales for any understanding of the literary cultures of medieval England and medieval Britain.

The book presents the latest research on important aspects of Wales's history, from the ninth to the sixteenth century, written by some of Britain's leading medieval historians and offered as a tribute to J. Beverley Smith, biographer (in both Welsh and English) of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and one of Wales's most distinguished scholars.

Although the legends of Arthur have been popular throughout Europe from the Middle Ages onwards, the earliest references to Arthur are to be found in Welsh literature, starting with the Welsh-Latin Historia Brittonum dating from the ninth century. By the twelfth century, Arthur was a renowned figure wherever Welsh and her sister languages were spoken. O. J. Padel now provides an overall survey of medieval Welsh literary references to Arthur and emphasizes the importance of understanding the character and purpose of the texts in which allusions to Arthur occur. Texts from different genres are considered together, and shed new light on the use that different authors make of the multifaceted figure of Arthur – from the folk legend associated with magic and animals to the literary hero, soldier and defender of country and faith. Other figures associated with Arthur, such as Cai, Bedwyr and Gwenhwyfar, are also discussed here.